Week Ending May 12

Mon - 10 miles (2,700') easy. Horsetooth north summit with Stefanovic, then a loop back down on Spring Creek. The falls continue to roar.

Tues - AM: 8 miles (2,100') hill tempo. Decided that I need to start getting after a few more uphill efforts as I get ready for Western States (after an instructive comment from last week's recap), so turned the screw a bit on this morning's Horsetooth summit. Ran a few seconds over 26 minutes on a fairly controlled effort straight up the Rock trail, climbing up the north gap route. It was good to feel the burn of a harder hill effort, but I was careful to not go to that place just yet. More than two minutes off my PR; I'll give Towers a proper effort next week to really get a read on where the fitness is at.
PM: 4 miles (700') easy. Abbreviated Falls loop.

Weds - AM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit.

Thurs - PM: 10 miles (1,800') easy. Marked up the Lory loop with Stefanovic.

Fri - AM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit. Bumped into Jenny Pierce and Mike Aish on the way up/down. Both were in town for Quad Rock and among the favorites for Saturday. Bit of rain/hail on the way up.
PM: 10 miles (2,700') easy. Finished marking up the Horsetooth section of the Quad Rock course with Stefano and Pedatella. Rock (65) - Westridge - Spring Creek - Falls.

Sat - Off. On my feet all day directing Quad Rock, but no running mileage. Shoulda jumped in on the kids' race.

The Liddles getting dirty at the Quad Rock kids' race. Photo: Shannon Price

Sun - 6 miles (1,800') run/hike. Hiked the Falls loop with Dana and the kids for mothers day, with a quick de-flagging detour up and down Spring Creek. 

Total: 63 miles (15,600')

Decided to take the weekend off, given the demands of putting on an ultra event, and was happy doing so. I know I've needed a couple of days off for a while, but have been too stubborn to do so. The rest has been most welcome and I've been feeling great so far this week as I begin the final push for Grand Slam fitness.

Pete and I were really happy with the way things unfolded on Saturday for the second running of the Quad Rock Trail Races and we're already looking forward to next year, taking the lessons learned from this year to make it even better. We had some great racing action up front, and lots of great stories from the field throughout the day For those interested, we posted a recap of the event with some fun pics over on the race website.

Head down from here until Squaw. Time To Get After It.

Fortnight Ending May 5

Week Ending April 28

Mon - Off. Totally beat down from the Horsetooth Marathon.

Running through Lory at the Horsetooth Marathon. From the Coloradoan

Tues - 6 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit (# 50 on the year) in the snow. Played catch up with Wesir and Josh, after getting a late call from our neighbor that she could come watch the kids. A good romp in the snow and still a ton of snow on the summit. Down through the slush on Wathan/Spring Creek. Fun summit for the 50th on the year.

Weds - noon: 6 miles (700') easy. A quick loop of Milner on tired legs.
PM: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Down on Wathan.

Thurs - 13 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Out and back on Centennial. Didn't even bother trying to keep up with Mike with legs still feeling totally fatigued from the Sonoma 50 / Horsetooth Marathon weekend back to back. Really thinking the Horsetooth race was a bad idea.
PM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Super casual north summit.

Friday - 11 miles (3,200') easy. Slogged my way through a Horsetooth double summit (north/south) on still fried legs. Southridge - Wathan - Spring Creek - Soderberg - Rock - Audra - Southridge.

Sat - 27 miles (6,000') easy. Ran the Quad Rock loop with tooth and falls add-ons. Ran steady with Jason Ostram, Mike, and Bryan Williams on what turned out to be a pretty warm morning. Just the one bottle was not enough so packing snow in there as we made our way around. Steady Eddie the whole way round; felt marginally better than earlier in the week, but still something of a slog.

Sun - 20.5 miles (5,000') easy. Ran part of the QR loop from home, joining Alex and Danny at Soderberg. Went nice and easy and felt a good bit better than the day before. Sawmill - Towers - Spring Creek - Falls - Soderberg - Rock - summit - Wathan - Spring Creek - Falls.

Total - 99 miles (22,200')

A pretty torturous week on really tired legs. By the weekend, things felt slightly better, but still not great. Not really how I wanted to be feeling at this stage of the training cycle, but that's what you get for being an old man and racing too much. This one didn't deserve triple digits, so I purposefully capped the week at 99 miles.

Week Ending May 5 

Mon - AM: 5 miles (1,100') uber easy. Falls loop.
PM: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth middle summit with Wesir. Nice easy jog up, then Wesir talked me into a middle summit, which was mercifully free of bird crap. Snow melt must have washed a good bit of it off.

Tues - AM: 7 miles intervals. Workout was 4 x mile w/middle two as fartleks. Legs had nothing, and I mean nothing. Gave up on these and just got around.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') super easy. Wanted to grab a quick summit, but my legs said niet!

Weds - noon: 6.5 miles (700') easy. Milner loop in driving snow. Woke up to a huge snow dump and it then proceeded to snow all day leaving us with another two feet on the ground. Really didn't want to run, but forced myself out the door.

Thurs - 12.5 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Josh Arthur was in town and met Mike and me at Maxwell for the Centennial out and back. Legs felt about as good as they have all week, allowing for a controlled 31 minute return.

With Josh Arthur after Thurs AM Tempo. Pic: Hinterberg

PM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Slogged out a Horsetooth north summit in rapidly melting snow.

Fri - 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit in the slush and snow. Back via the roaring falls.

Sat - 25.5 miles (4,700') easy. Early start up Horsetooth with Jason O for a quick summit, then down to Redstone Canyon for 3.5 miles followed by a left on Puma Gulch Rd after eyeing from top Horsetooth what looked like a connector to Otter Road high on the Christ Mountain ridgeline. It's never much fun to run private roads, but all the people we passed seemed reasonable enough and just a few threw suspicious looks our way. Anyway, after a 2,000' climb the road dead ended at a private property high on the Christ ridge. After an inspection of the satellite images, it looks like we could have picked up a connector jeep trail to Otter Road if it hadn't been buried under snow. From there we could have run the ridge south all the way into Masonville for what would have been a super fun loop. As it turned out, we back tracked and ran the private-road gauntlet all the way back to Redstone, then back to 38e and home. Fun morning.

Sun - 21 miles (1,000') easy. Ran out to the 19 mile mark on the Colorado Marathon course to pace Sarah in to the finish. I picked her up just as she was entering full-on bonk mode, so the planned 6:30/40 pace ended up being 7:30s. She didn't give in though and still ran a respectable 3:02, which was good enough for third female. Always a fun event.

Total: 107 miles (16,100') 

This was a tough couple of weeks, with heavy and unresponsive legs on a majority of my runs. Rather than do the sensible thing and take some down time, I plowed on and ran through it all. Things were better towards the end of this last week and the two long weekend runs felt pretty good. Hopefully I'm through the funk now and ready to finish out this training cycle with a strong May and June.

But enough about me. Burch has a fun Quad Rock preview up on his website. Pete and I are super excited to be hosting over 300 runners from all over the country this weekend, showcasing what we think are some of the best foothill trails in the state. We've got strong and deep fields in both the men's and women's 50 mile races, and we're of course looking forward to cheering in every runner from first to last. My buddy Justin Mock put a preview up on Running Times, if you want to check that out too. Please take note that Quad Rock gets top billing in the RT preview over that other race going off in the Canary Islands the same day.

We've also got a couple of events going on later in the summer: the inaugural Black Squirrel Half Marathon at the end of August and then the sixth running of the Blue Sky Trail Marathon in October. If you sign up for the Black & Blue Double (register for both races at the same time) it'll cost you less than $100, which we think is a pretty good deal.

Lake Sonoma 50 2013

I need  to get some thoughts down about this race before those thoughts turn into distant memories.

1. The race went out way harder this year than the year before and there were a lot of very fast young men in the field (and a couple of fast seniors, too).

2. Although we went through the 12.5 mile aid station 6 minutes quicker than last year, the effort didn't seem that much harder, but then it's kinda hard to compare one's current effort to something you were outputting precisely a year ago.

3. By mile 18, I knew I was in trouble, but was stuck in a train of guys I couldn't bring myself to let go of, so continued to descend into a hole it would take 15 miles to claw my way out of. Not particularly smart; lesson (re) learned.

4. At mile 20, I felt like I was running slower downhill than I had been running uphill at mile five. I'm not sure I have ever felt that terrible going downhill.

5. My split at the halfway point was five minutes quicker than the year before. Leaving the aid station, I was thinking it would be a miracle if I finished within 10 minutes of my time from 2012.

6. Joe Uhan passed me early on the way back running the kind of race I wished I'd been sensible enough to run. Aside from Joe I wasn't passed by any other runners in the last 25 miles, and somehow managed to pass four guys. Lesson: no matter how crap you feel in these races, you always need to remind yourself that there's a good chance others are feeling/performing even worse (he who slows the least...). Keep doing what you can with what you've got.

7. After taking my foot off the gas for 10 miles or so, I finally felt a second wind and was able to finish the race feeling reasonably good.

8. Rolling hills are a bugger for cramping legs.

9. John Medinger puts on a stellar event and always manages to come through with killer weather.

10. The course seems like it should run faster than it does. Rolling hills are harder than sustained ups and downs.

11. Two minutes slower on what felt like an off day seems like a decent result.

12. Pure speed matters over 50 miles; the jury is still out for 100 miles. Western States this year should provide some good data points on that.

13.

Another two miles and this guy would have pushed me out of the top 10. We'll both be top 10 at the end of June.

14. I need a pacer/crew for Western States. Anybody interested?

15. Splits:

15:29
29:22
1:23:00
2:04:00
3:09:00
3:52:00
4:12:00
4:58:00
6:05:00
6:53:00

And that's all I've got to say about that.

Fortnight Ending April 21

Week Ending April 14

Mon - noon: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth South Summit with the Wesir. First south summit in a while. Down via Slush's Slit.

Tues - PM: 5 miles (1,000') easy. Falls loop.

Weds - Noon: 5 miles (1,000') easy. Falls loop.

Thurs - PM: 3 miles (700') easy. Mini Falls loop from the parking lot.

Fri - Noon: 3.5 miles (700') easy. Last miles of Lake Sonoma out and back with Burch, Yassine, Jake, Bill, Todd and Cassie. Good to see the last couple of miles of the course to refresh the memory, and hilariously comical to watch Yassine leap over a rattler and hear Cassie scream full force and stop dead in her tracks. I would see (and jump over) another, smaller version the next day on the race course.

Sat - 50.5 miles (10,000') race. Lake Sonoma 50 (6:53, 10th). Race report coming, but kind of blah race, if I'm honest. Legs flat all day.

Sun - AM: 11.5 miles easy with Jake. Same loop as I did after last year's Lake Sonoma with Meghan and Thornley on super scenic rolling roads: vineyards and quaint bridges galore. Kinda creaky to get going and heavy legs for all of the run, but opened up a bit as we found our stride.

Total: 86 miles (15,300')

I was really hoping to run something in the 6:45 range or better at Sonoma, but ended up finding myself in damage-control mode from about mile 20 onwards after a start that was simply too aggressive on a set of pins that felt weirdly off and leaden. Nonetheless, you take the lessons learned (run within yourself early) and move on. Hopefully, I'll get a race report up for Sonoma in the next day or two. Kind of wishing I'd not taken things so easy in the days leading up, as I think the one-week taper thing does more damage than good - I should know better. My general rule of thumb on the taper is that the legs will feel awful the first week, regain some pop on the second week and feel awesome and ready to deliver after the third week. So for me it has to be all (three weeks) or nothing, I guess.

Week Ending April 28

Mon - Off

Tues - 5 miles (1,500') easy. Horsetooth north summit in full-on winter conditions, ski goggles and everything. A burly wind on top and even the start of a cornice with all the driving snow. Complete sock-in and easily the harshest conditions I've faced up there all winter ... er ... spring.

Weds - 5 miles (1,500') easy. Horsetooth north summit in deep, deep snow. Had to plow through waist deep powder to get the summit. Put in some tracks on the summit ridge that would trench out nicely over the next few days.

Thurs - 8 miles (2,200') easy. Falls loop, then Horsetooth north summit. Up with a handful of folks from the FCTR crew. Came down postholing via Audra and took a full on superman fall trying to shortcut in front of Wesir as we stomped the descent. Fun times.

Fri - 10 miles (2,700') slogging. Horsetooth north summit (49) with Wesir, then slogging on Westridge & Spring Creek through still virgin snow to mark a section of the Horsetooth Marathon course. Several days of thaw and freeze had put a couple of really nasty crust layers in the snow, which made for some pretty painful tracks. Almost reneged on my Grim Reaper promise, but Brian guilted me into making the turn for the extra 200' of vertical - an unnecessary in-the-neighborhood turn that I haven't missed since the start of this year's 100-mile cycle.

Sat - 5 miles (1,100') easy. Snuck in a quick 5 on crunchy trails on the Falls loop before Dana took off out of town for the weekend.

Sun - 28 miles (2,500') race. Horsetooth Trail Marathon (2:58, 1st). Decided last minute to jump in on this one for a variety of different reasons, but mainly because I love the Horsetooth Half event and thought it would be cool to celebrate the 40th anniversary by running the inaugural full marathon, which essentially goes from my house to the New Belgium brewery via Horsetooth Mountain. I mean, c'mon. Descending Towers (miles 5-8) my legs were feeling like they did at mile 30 in Lake Sonoma the weekend previously. Needless to say, the final 18 miles were a lesson in slog'baggery.

Total: 61 miles (11,500')

Two weeks then with relatively low mileage and two longer races. Neither race did much to inspire confidence in my overall fitness and durability, but by the same token, the Sonoma race suggests that I'm in similar shape to last year when I felt like I peaked in May, rather than in June for Western States as intended. So with that said, I feel like I am in a decent place with regards to Western States and the Grand Slam, especially if I can get a really solid block of training taken care of in May.

In other news, registration for the sixth annual Bluesky Marathon (Oct 6) and the (new) Black Squirrel Half (Aug 31) have opened up for those interested in a couple of really fun local trail races later in the summer/early fall. Registration discounts are available for those who sign up for both through the Black & Blue Double option. And while Quad Rock is officially sold out, we have had emails from runners that can't make it and are looking to transfer entries, so if you're looking for a late entry into either the 25 mile or 50 mile race then sign up for the wait list and we'll get you transferred over to the start list. 

Week Ending April 7

Mon - AM: 8 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Tired.

Tues - AM: 10.5 miles intervals. Workout was: mile, 800, 800, mile, 800, 800, 2 mile fartlek (all cemetery, except the two mile, which was City Park route) with 2 - 3 min standing rest between. Mike, Brian and Garcia to work with this morning. Ran pretty much as a pack for the first half and then I tagged onto Garcia's coattails for the rest. This seemed like the first really good morning for running we've had at Jane's all fall/winter/spring, and for whatever reason the running felt really good. First mile as always served as a warm-up, and felt pretty casual, so I was pleased to see a 5:25, then went 2:36, 2:37, 5:15, 2:38, 2:38, 11:13 (5k/marathon effort on the hard/easy). For as comfortable as these reps felt, I was super stoked with this workout. I've kind of been slogging through these intervals all winter a little frustrated with the effort/result, so today felt like a mini breakthrough. I didn't feel like I was overexerting and the numbers came in a little better than they have been. I'm going to call that progress.

In other news, Jane Welzel - who organizes these workouts and the Tuesday Night Track workouts in the summer - was recently inducted into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame. I can't think of a more deserving person in the Fort Collins Running community for this honor. Not only is Jane a five-time Olympic Trials Qualifier ('84-'00) with a 2:33 PR and a former U.S. national champ in the marathon, but she is also a tireless supporter of the local running scene with an enduring passion for the sport that many a former elite would find hard to match. I think it would be fair to say that Jane serves as a huge inspiration to many a runner in Fort Collins, myself included. Very well deserved, Jane. Congrats!

Jane crushing it at the CSU track on a Tuesday Night. Photo pilfered from The Coloradoan. See the Q&A here.

PM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Falls loop. Tired, but had to push a bit as I was under the gun to get the kids off to activities.

Weds - AM: 8 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Killer inversion morning, with Milner's summit just poking up above the clouds and Longs basking in full morning sun high above the cloud base. Lingered on top for a good 10 minutes soaking it in.

Thurs - AM: 10 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Centennial out and back with Mary, Celeste and Ziggy. Back in 31:30 at a good steady effort. Feeling a little tired, though.
PM: 7 miles (1,700') steady. First time back on Towers in a while. Good turnout for the first spring session of the year - probably 25-30 on the hill. Feeling kinda sluggish from the morning session, I started out jogging and eased into a tempo kind of effort by halfway. Ended up running 32:30, which ain't too shabby given the relative effort and heavy legs.

Fri - Noon: 8.5 miles (2,200') easy. Horsetooth north summit (South/Audra/Gap/Wathan) with an out of shape Stefanovic. Good to get back on the hill with Bryan.

Sat - AM: 19.5 miles (5,200') easy. Quad Rock training run. We got a great day for running and a decent one for hanging out; we did both in great style. Had a good 50 - 60 runners show up for the run, with an impressively big group on the Horsetooth north summit on the first lap. I ran a loop and a half, then tended to all things barbecue. Fun times.

A group heading up in the early stages of the first Horsetooth climb

First Endurance and Pearl Izumi supported the run.

Mary Boyts, an integral part of the Quad Rock team, tries on a pair of PURPLE Trail N1s! All above pics, Shannon Price.

Summit pics. Pilfered from Silke Koester's excellent webpage

Sun - 15 miles easy/steady. Up early to mark the Tortoise and Hare 12k course, then another 8 miles between 6:30 and 7:00 pace on the bike paths. Last race of the 2012/13 season - been a good one with record attendance. First and second today (actual time) were Karen and Sarah: showing the boys how to get it done. 

Total: 91.5 miles (15,400')

Another week in the books, and it was good one. Despite feeling a little tired and lackluster, the running came easily enough. A good workout on Tuesday, a strong double hill tempo on Thursday (AM/PM), and a fun hilly Saturday morning in Horsetooth has me feeling decently confident that I can post a PR over in California this weekend at the Lake Sonoma 50. Anything faster than last year (6:49) will be considered a success, and overall placement will take care of itself. I'm guessing a 6:50 or better will be needed for a top 10 spot.

If anyone is looking for a place on the Quad Rock 50 start line, we have a couple of people looking to transfer slots, so sign up for the waitlist and you'll get transferred over to the entrant list. In other news, registration for the Bluesky Marathon opens April 15. Pete and I have taken over the management of the event and in celebration of all things Fort Collins trail running, we have decided to DROP the entry fee. We still can't compete with Salida for the state's cheapest marathon, but we're close. A paltry $65 gets you entry if you sign up early. And get this ... we're offering entry into the inaugural Black Squirrel Half Marathon (yes, you read that right) for an additional $34 if you sign up for both at the same time. If my math is correct, that means you get to run the half and full (Black and Blue Double) for under $100. Blimey. We're working on the webpage right now, but Double registration details are available on the Bluesky Website. The date for the BS HM is August 31st and the course is a full outer loop of Lory, heading up Timber and down Howard. Should be a pretty fast course. 

Week Ending March 31

Mon - Noon: 7 miles (1,800') easy. Horsetooth north summit. Up South/Audra. A bit chilly out still, but a good trench pretty much the whole way up made for quality snow running. Strong sun meant that the melt was on despite air temps at or below freezing.
PM - 4 miles (800') easy. Quick Falls loop before picking up Alistair from the bus stop.

Tues - AM: 9.5 miles intervals. City Park segments. Workout was: mile (3 hills, slightly long), mile fartlek (1 hill, short), 1,200, 1,200 fartlek, 1,000 fartlek, mile fartlek (3 hill, long) w/standing rest of 3-5 mins between intervals. Good group (Brian, Mike, Ben) to keep the effort honest: 5:36 (5:28), 5:19 (5:25), 3:55 (5:16), 4:01 (5:23), 3:19 (5:20), 5:33 (5:25). Pushed the hard segments of the fartleks as much as possible, mainly by trying to hang on to Ben. Searching for that non-existent leg turnover.
PM: 7.5 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit. South/Audra. Started out at a really lethargic effort after the morning workout, but felt good once warmed up. The snow is melting quickly, so good and sloppy out. Got halfway up the north gap before turning back due to ice. Up the standard route.

Weds - Noon: 8 miles (2,400') easy. Horsetooth north summit. Up southridge/Audra, down Wathan/Spring Creek/Falls. Trails are a day or two from being completely clear, but mega sloppy right now, which is always a refreshing change here on the desert Front Range. Up via the north gap, which was almost snow and ice free, then down a slushy Wathan. Took a peek at the falls, but not much action despite the melt. Gorgeous out, felt great and super fluid. Fitness feels good right now.  

Thurs - AM: 12 miles (1,400') hill tempo. Centennial out and back w/Mike, Celeste, Ziggy and Scott. Came back a little harder than planned, but nothing too crazy. Splits coming back were: 7:22, 6:14, 6:30, 5:30, 5:00.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Felt pretty worked from the morning session, so backed off on heading up the hill in favor of a really easy Falls loop. Trails are now essentially clear and dry.

Fri - PM: 9.5 miles (2,500') easy. After work with Burch. Horsetooth summit via Southridge/Audra, North Gap, then Wathan, Herrington, Stout, Spring Creek, Falls. Trails pretty firm the whole way around. Beautiful late afternoon weather.

Sat - AM: 29.5 miles (7,700') long. Horsetooth Extravaganza. With Lory closed and a long run close to home on the docket, Burch and I decided to see if we could cover as close to every inch of singletrack in the park as possible without too much back and forthing. I think we ran a pretty efficient route to get the job done, but there might be some alternative turns to make the route even more precise. For those who know the trails (and care), route went: Southridge - Audra - South Summit - Rock - Westridge - Towers - Spring Creek - Wathan - Rock - North summit - Rock Trail - Soderberg - Spring Creek - Stout - Herrington to Spring Creek o&b - Herrington - Towers - Herrington - Loggers - Carey Springs - Towers - Mill Creek - Loggers - Sawmill - Nomad - Towers - Stout (right) - Sawmill - Loggers - Towers - Stout (right) - Spring Creek - Falls - Grim Reaper. Fun morning at a steady effort (4:45) on solid legs. Lots of people out running the trails, which is always great to see.

Sun - AM: 16.5 miles (4,300') easy. Becky Wheeler was down on the Front Range in search of a little dirt, so we got out and ran around Horsetooth for a few hours. Good to see Becky back up and running after she broke her foot last year at Collegiate Peaks. Some titanium and a few screws, and she seems to be back on the road to fitness. Becky will be among the favorites in the strong women's field at Quad Rock next month. Others to look out for will be returning champ Jenny Pierce, last year's runner up (and local legend) Steph Lynn, Anita Ortiz, Kerrie Bruxvoort, Meredith Terranova, Alyssa Wildeboer, and (The) Kristel Liddle, among many others.

PM: 4 miles (1,100') hiking with Alistair and the neighborhood kids to top Milner Mountain - upon which we live - and back, from home after a beer - maybe two - too many at our Easter party. Sch'wacked from the spring on Hilltop. Fun outing.


---------------------------------------------------------
January: 345.5 miles (51,900)
February: 309 (47,900')
March: 438.5 (68,800') 

Total: 1,093 (168,600') 
Ave: 364.5 (56,200')
---------------------------------------------------------
2013 Summits
---------------
Horsetooth (7,255') (39)
Arthurs Rock (6,780') (2)
Turtlehead (6,324')
Maderas Volcano (4,573')
---------------------------------------------------------


Total: 114.5 miles (25,000')

This ended up as a pretty solid week: couple of quality workouts, biggest mileage week of the year, heavy vertical, big long run - pretty much ticked all the boxes. Probably go by feel a bit for the next couple of weeks as I try to ride that line between onward progress towards summer goals and the desire to find a bit of freshness for Lake Sonoma on April 13. But essentially plan to run through Sonoma and keep the eyes on the prize.

What else? Got down into the lower valley section of Horsetooth a couple of times this weekend to take a look at the southern part of the burn area, and while it all looks very barren without the long, dry grass, it was super encouraging to see regrowth already poking through. Give it another couple of weeks and I'm guessing it will be hard to tell from afar that there was even a fire down there. Very little burn in the trees, which is fantastic.

Quad Rock is now full in both the 25 and 50 mile races, but we do have a waitlist and I'm sure spots will turn over through April given our refund policy, so get on that if you want to run. The QR training run is set for this Saturday and is open to everyone, registered runner or not. We've had to move it from Lory to Horsetooth due to continued trail closures in Lory, but same idea: get together with a bunch of trail runner folk, run for a few hours, kick back, eat some food, drink a beer or two, shoot the breeze, take the new PI E:Motions for a test ride if you want, go home. We'll meet at the main Horsetooth lot at 8:30 and do a 13 mile loop on the Horsetooth section of the course and then reverse for 26 (or just stick at 13). All abilities/paces welcome and likely to find company. More here.

Week Ending March 24

Mon - 8 miles (1,500') easy. Started outside the Red Rocks Natural Area west of Vegas and ran three miles up the scenic drive to the trailhead for Turtlehead peak, a popular little mountain with killer views of the Vegas Valley and Rainbow Mountains. Totally botched the ascent, ending up under a big cliff band on the east side of the mountain. Had to be back to take the kids out, so no time to circle around and get the summit. Turned around and ran back to the car.

Tues - 6.5 miles easy. Ran west from my mother-in-law's house past the last of the westernmost sprawl of Vegas (mainly a construction site) into the desert to a flood control thingy and back.
PM: 10 miles intervals. Drove down to Boulder City to meet Josh for a track workout at Boulder City High School. Workout was 8 x 1000 cruise intervals @ 3:20-3:26 with lap rest (1:56 - 2:17): 3:23, 3:24, 3:26, 3:24, 3:22, 3:22, 3:20, 3:19 (1:56 - 2:17). Josh led odd, I led even.

Weds - 11 miles (800') easy. Back out into the desert from mother-in-law's, this time jumping a fence to follow a wash out to the Red Rocks campground and back.
PM: 4 miles easy in the neighborhood.

Thurs - 7 miles (3,200') easy. Turtlehead Peak (6,324'). Had to get back and grab this one before leaving. Decided to come at it from the 'backside' in Calico Basin, following a trail around Kraft Mountain that led into a wash which in turn led to the backside (northeast) of the mountain. Hoofed it up to a cliff band, scrambled through and gained the summit. Great views from the top, which was replete with a summit ammo box containing summit register, a bottle of water, a granola bar (yummy - thanks), a cigarette, a lighter and rolling papers. Ha! Came down the standard route and then once down turned east and headed back to Calico Basin through a sandstone slot canyon accessed from Calico Tanks. Fun outing.

Fri - 8 miles (1,600') easy. Met up early with Joe Baumgarte and Doug Wickert for a short tour of the Cowboy Trails on the mesa east of Red Rock Canyon. Great run with a couple of guys who really appreciate the killer terrain available to runners and climbers in the area. Learned a ton about the almost endless options in the Vegas Valley and Spring Mountains, which has me hungry for my next visit to the area. We ended the run with a descent of Joe's favorite section of trail - dubbed the 'Canyon of Pure Bliss' - which was a great capstone to a fun week in Vegas.

Sat - 16.5 miles (1,700') easy. Came home from Vegas on Friday night into the eye of a wet Colorado winter/spring storm. Drive home from the airport was torturous, and running plans for Saturday were buried under a foot of snow. Waited forever to get out of the house as things looked horrendous outside, procrastinating by doing taxes (!), but finally popped out early evening for a quick jaunt down to Redstone Canyon where I finished with three pick-up miles before jogging back home.

Sun - 26.5 miles (3,500') easy. The annual Fort Collins Trail Runners' celebration of spring, March Mileage Madness, was completely derailed by a closed Lory State Park (due to restoration work post fire) and the snow dump that came down on Friday/Saturday. So, instead of a big reservoir circumnavigation, we did a Horsetooth Horseshoe. Running from chez Alex May east of the reservoir, we ran out to and up Horsetooth Mountain, then descended and continued on to Redstone Canyon before turning at the three-mile marker and retracing (minus the Horsetooth summit) back to Alex's for brews and food. Despite the 21 miles of road, it was a fun morning. Ran mostly with Steph and Mike.

Top Horsetooth. Pic: Rob Erskine

Alex and Sam heading up the Horsetooth Trail. Pic: Erskine

Total: 97.5 miles (12,200')

Kind of a crazy week, with fires, snowstorms and an escape to Las Vegas. The fire in Lory State Park was fully contained by the time the snowstorm came, but we'll take the moisture nonetheless. As far as Lory is concerned, it seems as if the major burning was confined to the grass and scrub of the lower valley and didn't burn anywhere near as hot as the High Park Fire last summer. The park currently remains closed, as many of the footbridges on the valley trails were destroyed in the fire and will need to be rebuilt, but other than that things seem to be a whole lot better than they could have been.

For anyone who happens to be reading this and is wondering about the fire's impact on the Quad Rock race in May, the answer at this point appears to be that the impact will be minimal. The Horsetooth Marathon (April 20), which uses some of the same trails, is still scheduled to happen and park managers are confident that the park will be open for business in about three weeks. So, at this point, no reroute and business as usual for Quad Rock. However, our planned training run for April 6 will have to be rethought as we are not going to be able to stage from Lory and most likely will not be able to use the trails. Therefore, we're hoping to figure something out with Horsetooth officials and will plan some kind of route through there on as much of the course as possible. We'll have an update on the website as soon as we have that figured out.

Had a great week in Vegas. Our original plan was to spend most of the trip in San Diego so the kids could visit Sea World, but both of them were puking the night before we were scheduled to leave so we decided to stay put and just hang out. Everyone seemed more than happy with not having to drive five hours each way to San Diego, and of course there is no shortage of activities for kids in Las Vegas. For me, it meant an opportunity to get out and explore a bit, and while I only scratched the surface, it was a really fun week. The brief forays into the Red Rock area have me very excited for my next trip out to Vegas when I hope to get out and do some real exploring in the rugged Spring Mountains, with hopefully a big traverse of the Rainbow Mountains section directly east of the Red Rock area.

El Padre and La Madre Mountains to the northeast end of the Rainbow Mountains.

Week Ending March 17

Mon - AM: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit via the north gap. Up Southridge/Audra, down Wathan/Spring Creek. Good bit of snow in the gap, but rock was decently dry. Legs felt great coming down Wathan, so really no soreness from Salida.
PM: 6 miles (800') easy. Milner Mountain Loop. Snuck in a late run just as a snow squall was coming in.

Tues - AM: 9 miles intervals. Cemetery workout: mile, 800, 800, mile, broken mile (2x800, with 10 second jog between reps), broken 1.5 mile (3x800 with 10 second jog between reps). Didn't want to push this workout so soon after Salida, even though I felt okay, so eased in and ran comfortably: 5:38, 2:45, 2:40, 5:26, 5:34 (2:49, 2:45), 8:31 (2:49, 2:48, 2:44). Snow was coming down pretty good during the workout and the underfoot was a bit slippery, but a good morning and felt nicely energized.
PM: 7 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit. Good amount of snow and slop on the ground, but the sun was out, so nice enough. Looked at the north gap, but backtracked to standard route as the rock looked super icy. Up South/Audra, down Rock.

Weds - Noon: 8 miles (2,100') easy. Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Up South/Audra, down Wathan/Spring Creek. Kinda sloppy out with all the snow melt, but beautiful afternoon.

Thurs - AM: 10 miles (1,400') steady state hills. Five miles out and back on Centennial with Steph, Mike and Celeste. Came back at a fairly casual effort: 8:24, 6:57. 6:48, 5:41, 5:45 - still not wanting to really push too hard post-Salida.
PM: 7 mile easy for the 3/14 Pi social run with the FCTR crew. West side of Pineridge was closed due to sloppy trail conditions, so no circular loop, but fun to catch up with friends as always.

Fri - Just before noon: 7 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit. This one started out as a glorious run on a just a beautifully warm spring morning. As is typical at this time of year on the Front Range, the wind was blowing pretty good, but no bother as the temps were so good. Coming through the Audra gap back onto the front side of Horsetooth, I couldn't believe my friggin' eyes: smoke to the north. Surely not, but there was just no mistaking it from the top of Horsetooth. A controlled burn, maybe? Couldn't be with the winds as strong as they were. I had no phone but stopped the first person I saw on the way down - we called it in and sure enough, a friggin' wildfire in Lory. I wanted to scream. Memories of last year's devastating High Park fire came flooding back. Two hours later and we were getting a pre-evacuation call from the county telling us to get ready to evacuate our home, just an hour before we were due to leave for Denver to fly out to Las Vegas for a visit with the in-laws for Alistair's spring break. What to do? Decided to continue on with plans and head down to Denver for our flight out, and let the chips fall where they may. Taking off and heading west, I had a bird's eye view of a huge plume of smoke billowing east over Fort Collins from the northerly Front Range foothills. I can't tell you how depressed I felt looking out of that window.

Sat - 20 miles (3,600') easy. I was really in no mood for much of anything this morning, but decided to get out with Vegas local Josh Brimhall to get my mind off things. We ran a loop of the ridiculously scenic Red Rock Canyon on the west side of the Vegas Valley, with a loop around the White Rock trail for mileage add. Enjoyed the views of the Spring Mountains from the high point on the White Rock loop and looked out to an intriguing possible run for next week up the Rocky Gap Rd for a summit tag or two. Talked to Pete later in the day to get the latest from Fort Collins and was encouraged to hear that things had improved significantly, and that the carnage in Lory might not be as bad as I had feared.

Sun - 16 miles (1,800') fast finish. Met up with Josh again for a run at Sloan Canyon on the southeast side of the Vegas Valley. We enjoyed a nice cruise on the groomed McCullough trails, finishing up with four miles at: 6:00, 5:35, 5:40, 6:00.

Total: 98 miles (15,600')

On the running side of things, this was a good week. The mileage is back up towards the peak training zone, I recovered seamlessly from Salida and I feel pretty fit. Fire in March makes me sad.

Salida Trail Marathon 2013 - AKA Run Through Time

The Salida Trail Marathon used to take you out to the 'ghost town' of Turret, hence the name, A Run Through Time. Well ... times have changed, as has the course ... three times. The course has certainly been changed for the better with the addition of 12 miles of snaking singletrack, and this year we were running the exact same course as in 2012, and hopefully the exact same course as we will for the foreseeable future. It's a good one with a little bit of something for everyone: singletrack, double track, jeep track, dirt road, sand pits, altitude, technical descents, killer high-peak views, and the list goes on. Everyone seems to have fun in Salida in March.

Milling around at the start, chatting with familiar faces, I was feeling comfortable in shorts, a T and arm panties, despite a weather forecast predicting the Snowpocalypse: run hard, crank the internal furnace, get up, get down and be done. As it turned out, we'd get an inch, maybe two, of snow above 8,000 feet in what turned out to be pretty good conditions.

The two-mile warm up lap seemed a little more reasonable than last year, probably due to the now staggered marathon, half marathon starts. This allowed for a chance to shoot the breeze a bit before we would start climbing. Entering the singletrack, two miles in, nobody seemed to want to take the initiative, and we had a big group. I'm not sure he wanted it, but Travis Macy was handed the honors of leading the train up the opening set of switchbacks. But before we found the hill, I found a rock and went flying, relegating myself from the passenger seat to somewhere near the back of our 10-man lead pack.  

Behind Jonathan Garcia, three of four miles in.

The pace heading up the hill was again quite comfortable, which was perfectly fine by me. Feeling comfortable in the lead pack is a good place to be. Nobody seemed in the least bit concerned with upping the tempo when wider sections of trail allowed for passing or indeed when Travis verbally offered up the lead. I figured things would open up once we hit the Ute Trail (railroad grade dirt road) at mile eight, so settled in and enjoyed the nice cruise in and out of drainages on the contour we were following.

I might have gotten a little carried away once we hit the road, as almost immediately I decided that I needed to be the one to turn things up a notch, of course overshooting the mark and pushing too hard and then having to watch as Josh Arthur and Timmy Parr cruised on by as I reined in the effort to something a little more appropriate for the distance and my fitness. One other guy - Jason Donald - came with me and so began the long slow climb up to 9,000 feet. Timmy and Josh built a 20 meter lead, as the snow started coming down, then seemed to settle into a similar pace to mine and Jason's. Tim would ultimately come back to us on this climb and then the three of us would work together, now through about an inch of fresh powder, to reel in Josh by the 12.5-mile turn. Things were setting up nicely for a fun back half of the race.

This, of course, is where you start second guessing yourself. Convinced that the others look as fresh as daisies, I kept trying to find excuses to take my foot off the gas so that I wouldn't have to suffer too bad by racing hard for the 90 minutes that remained. But I kept finding myself holding on, and then holding on comfortably, and before I knew it we were beginning the big technical jeep track descent. Almost immediately, we dropped Jason and it was down to a three-man race.

On the rocky jeep track, I watched from 10 meters back as Timmy and Josh traded off the lead. They looked to be killing it, while I was feeling a little clumsy, but somehow the gap didn't grow. That seemed to be the story all morning: me marveling at how comfortable everyone else was looking while feeling like I should be dropping off the back but holding my own anyway.

At mile 20, I hit the penultimate aid station 10 seconds back on Tim and Josh. They stopped for water/gels, but I was good to go, essentially putting myself right back in the mix. Josh got out first, followed by Timmy, and almost immediately Josh rebuilt a lead. I could sense that Tim was tying up, so I took an opportunity a half mile into the tight, technical singltrack to pass, by which time Josh had built a gap of about a minute. I gave up a bit more on the last slog of a climb, and then pretty much held my own through the last three miles to the finish, leaving time for one last spectacular digger.

Timmy Parr, winner Josh Arthur and myself.

All in all, a good workout in Salida. I felt strong all morning, and while the mental game clearly needs some work, my fitness is as good - or better - as it's been in a while. Whenever you PR at a race that you've run five times previously on the slowest rendition of an already tough course, then you've got to be happy. Next up is Lake Sonoma, where the goal is no more than to run faster than last year.

Results

Week Ending March 10

Mon - AM: 6 miles easy (800'). Milner Mountain loop.
PM: 5 miles easy (1,100'). Falls loop.

Tues - AM: 10 miles intervals. Workout was mile, mile, 1,200, 1,000, mile, mile. All miles except the first were supposed to be fartlek, but I ran a comfortable pace throughout for the most part. Miles ranged from 5:45 to 6:30 with shorter intervals at a similar intensity. Decided to just get some mileage in at marathon/50k pace to save a little something for the weekend's action in Salida. Long cool down with Mike. Really cold to start, but warmed up quickly once the sun hit.
PM: 6 miles easy (800'). Milner Mountain loop.

Weds - Noon: 7 miles easy (1,900'). Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Just a beautiful day out.

Thurs - AM: 10 miles steady (1,400'). The usual 5 mile out and back with the crew. Mike, Jen, Mary, Celeste and Ziggy this morning. Let Mike go on the way back, keeping things nicely under control at something akin to marathon effort. No watch.
PM: 5 miles (1,100') easy. Falls loop. Bumped into Burch at Horsetooth Upper as he was finishing up. Talked him into jogging a Falls loop with me, chatting a bit about the competition at Salida.

Fri - 3.5 miles jogging once we got to Salida.

Sat - 27.5 miles race (4,000'). Salida Marathon. 3:07:58, 2nd. Another good early season indicator, with a six minute PR on this particular course, and a minute or two faster than my previous PR on the slightly faster 2011 course. Got to be happy with that. Tanked a bit mentally with six to go, but regrouped and got back after it to finish strong. Just a really fun morning of racing. Wish they could all be like that. More details to come, but first got to give a big shout out to Josh Arthur - the winner from Crested Butte - who ran strong all morning for a very well deserved win. Burch had told me earlier in the week about his Collegiate Peaks 25 mile record-busting run from last year, so I knew he'd be there or there abouts if in similar form, which apparently he was. He didn't quite show the same form over longer distances last year, but I'm thinking 2013 might be a big year for Josh. Watch this space (the interwebs, that is...) and stay tuned at Quad Rock/Leadville/UROC this summer.

Sun - 5 miles. Jogged out to the start/finish, then did the 2 mile fun run loop and jogged back through town. Felt really good all things considered, with very little soreness to speak of.

Total - 85 miles (10,900')

Another good week in the books, with a solid and encouraging race at Salida. I've really been working hard to keep things under control until now, with Salida the planned for green light. It is now officially time to get seriously serious about getting 100-mile fit. Three months of intensity coming up.

Week Ending March 3

Mon - noon: 7.5 miles (1,900') slogging. Horsetooth north summit (Southridge/Audra). Although there was a decent trench most of the way, the snow was still pretty unconsolidated and choppy which made for a bit of a slog fest. Good and deep up near the summit, which was fun, and then some good wading on Audra. Tiring.
PM: 6 miles (700') easy. Milner Mtn loop. Felt pretty spry coming back up the hill on 38e.

Tues - AM: 8.5 miles intervals. Workout was 5 x mile, with first and last mile at steady effort (cemetery) and middle three as fartlek (city park). A while since I've been to Jane's AM workouts, and I felt it - perhaps some lingering fatigue from Fuego y Agua too. Ran with Mike and Ben, although Ben consistently dropped us on the faster fartlek segments, in addition to the last mile: 5:29, 5:34, 5:37, 5:44 (fell apart), 5:26 (felt terrible).
PM: 6 miles (700') easy. Felt better as the run went on, but that's not saying much as I started out feeling like I was going to have trouble completing the loop.

Weds - PM: 7 miles (1,200') easy. Falls loop with some tooling around in the neighborhood.

Thurs - AM: 10 miles (1,400') tempo. Been a few weeks since I've done the HTH5MO&B, so it was good to get back this morning. Weather man said it was 12 degrees at 6:00, but when the wind's not blowing it just never feels that cold in Colorado. So, yeah, it was really quite a pleasant morning, made all the better by the big bright moon hovering over Horsetooth to the west with day breaking over the plains to the east: Centennial has to be one of the best sections of road on the Front Range for running/biking, IMO, especially at daybreak. If you haven't run it yet, the Horsetooth Half Marathon (which we run the first five miles of for this workout) is an absolute classic and will be celebrating its 40th year in 2013.

Anyway, today was much like many other Thursday mornings: out easy with good friends, and then back at some degree of intensity. I told Mike and Steph at the turn that I wasn't feeling much like pushing on the way back, but by the time I'd climbed north dam hill and given Mike 20 seconds, I guess my competitive nature got the better of me. At first I was content to try and keep the gap at 20 seconds, but by the end of mile two I was pretty determined to catch Mike. Finally did on the last mile back down to Maxwell, and then felt silly for running the workout harder than planned. Splits: 7:50, 6:18, 6:48, 5:03, 4:45 (30:45).
PM: 6.5 easy on the bike paths with the FCTR crew.


---------------------------------------------------------
January: 345.5 miles (51,900)
February: 309 (47,900')
---------------------------------------------------------
2013 Summits
---------------
Horsetooth (7,255') (24)
Arthurs Rock (6,780') (2)
---------------------------------------------------------


Fri - Noon: 7 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit via a heavily snowed-in north gap. Once on the rock though, the climbing was good with very little ice - as I suspected would be the case given the warmer temps. Somewhat freakishly, a search and rescue helicopter did a fly by, 50 meters to the west of the rock as I was climbing and then circled again even closer - to the point that I could clearly see the pilot and passenger - before shooting off west towards Buckhorn Canyon.

Sat - AM: 23 miles (3,200') steady with Burch. A nice casual summit of Horsetooth (up Southridge/Audra, down Rock) in the packed and rapidly melting snow, then down 38e to Redstone for a full out and back at the high end of easy, followed by a strong climb up 38e and an easy finish on the Grim Reaper. Spring was most definitely in the air today.

Sun 11.5 miles. 4 miles setting up the Lee Martinez 10k T&H course, then some quicker miles to make the best of sleeping through my (super) early alarm. Had planned on 16 miles, running from home, but ended up driving into town. Ran the final 7 miles at a low to mid-six effort before getting the race underway.
PM: 2 miles carrying Stella down to the Falls and back. Muddy out - snow pretty much all melted out - water flow through the falls was kinda disappointing unfortunately.

Total: 95 miles (11,000')

Pretty good week on balance. Probably take the foot of the gas a little bit this week before heading out to the Banana Belt with the family on Friday after work for the always-fun Salida Marathon weekend. Full-on mileage mode from there.

Fortnight Ending February 24

Week Ending Feb 17

Mon - 4 miles easy on Bluesky.

Tues - 4 miles easy on Bluesky.

Weds - Off. Travel day.

Thurs - 4 miles easy on Isla de Ometepe w/ Yassine, DJ, and Alex Kurt. A very casual jog around town and down a couple of sandy dirt roads dodging cows, horses, and dogs. Awesome views of Concepcion, the larger of the island's two volcanoes.

Fri - Off. Somehow didn't find the time to get out and jog a few.

Sat - 62 miles (9,000) race. Fuego y Agua 100k.

Sun - Off. Mainly boozing, but a spot of beach time too.

Total: 74 miles (9,000')

Week Ending Feb 24

Mon - Off. Waited for a ferry all day that never came. Costly flight change, then to bed.

Tues - 3.5 miles easy in Managua w/Eric, Yassine and Alex. All four of us were running topless, which I guess is something of a cultural no-no in Nicaragua. Wolf whistles, cat calls and general guffawing by pretty much everyone who passed us. An odd run. Legs felt decent after 15 minutes or so.

Weds - Off. Travel day. Came home to a snowstorm - total 360 from the heat on the front end of the day's journey.

Thurs - 7 miles (1,900') easy. Horsetooth north summit via north gap. Broke tracks on Audra and under Horsetooth. Decided to go up my north gap climbing route, which probably wasn't my best decision of the year so far. Super sketchy on icy rock, but got up safe enough after a few lengthy pauses.

Fri - 7 miles (1,900) easy. Horsetooth north summit on the standard route. Southridge/Audra. Slopped around in the snow a bit, but generally good footing.

Sat - 24 miles (3,600') easy/steady. Horsetooth north summit via Spring Creek/Wathan at a steady clip on the Wathan climb, then back down Rock trail to TH and on to Redstone Canyon via 38e for a full 13 mile out and back at a steady effort. Back home easy via the Grim Reaper. Legs felt great the whole way around, although fatigued a touch towards the end. Apparently no lingering effects from 100k the weekend prior.

Sun - 12 miles easy on the bike paths. Had plans for 16 on Centennial, but it hadn't been plowed and the wind was raging, so opted for bike paths with the few who showed up for FCRC Horsetooth Half training run. Best of a bad situation, I guess. Hiked a bench loop with the kids in about a foot/foot and half of fresh powder up at Horsetooth in the afternoon. So good to finally have a snowfall worthy of mention. Need more, much more.

Total: 53.5 miles (7,400')

I feel pretty good about the race last weekend, although somewhat disappointed with how lazy I got 45 miles in once the race was essentially won. I had a lengthy moment out there under the blazing sun questioning my sanity with regards to the four 100 milers I have coming up this summer. I know in each and every one of those races, I'll have that same moment many times over ... there's no getting around it, so this was a good reminder that I need to build a bit of mental fortitude before I get to the start line in Squaw. You always push on, but the trick is to be able to push on at a hard effort when every bone in your body is telling you to take it easy. I have a few monster workouts planned between now and then that should help with the mental number, plus of course another three months of training.

Really looking forward to Salida in a couple of weeks - always a great early season test of fitness with a good little field to keep the race effort honest. Not sure what kind of snow they got in the valley, but I know that Monarch got a foot and a half over the weekend, so I'm assuming they got a good bit down there too. Expecting less-than-stellar conditions, but that's part of the deal with a March race in Colorado, I guess.

Oh, and just for the record, I did not become a member of the Twitterati last weekend, despite the best efforts of a certain Brit to convince people otherwise.

All Mine! Pic: Amy Perez.